Myniakal is a self-described “psychedelic hip hop” artist who hails from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His latest album, entitled Palace Days dropped on November 1, 2013 and I’m enjoying the fact that this release has a nice old school hip hop feel with a good amount of psychedelia thrown in for good measure. I enjoyed Myniakal’s relaxed flow and it complemented the production well. I’m a big fan of artists who make interesting references to pop culture in their lyrics, and Myniakal is no exception. The one line I really enjoyed from him was on the track “Unlimited” with the line, “We can fuck and watch The Matrix.” And the nods made to the popular Dragon Ball franchise are always great to hear.
My favorite tracks would definitely have to be the self-titled track “Palace Days” as well as “Gold”, “Florence”, “Electric Church”, and “Descend” (I’m a sucker for piano in hip hop). The production on the latter tracks of this album begin to delve into the more hazy psychedelic side and Myniakal’s lyrics get more serious as well. I feel that “Paris Bathtub” is where this begins and with Myniakal repeatedly saying, “Throw me in a Paris bathtub with a toaster”, he clearly paints a morbid picture that quickly gets stuck in your head. The concluding track, produced by the great Flying Lotus, is a good finisher for this album. FlyLo’s mechanical production on this track more than complements Myniakal’s flow.
This is my first introduction to Myniakal and I was impressed. His lyrics cover a number of things including worrying about the future, reaching esoteric levels of perception (the third eye), being under the influence of psychedelics, making money, and conquering the game of hip hop (an all too common dream).
Palace Days is definitely worth a listen and you can download and listen to the album HERE via Hot New Hip Hop and you can follow Myniakal HERE on Twitter.
[…] out Myniakal’s previous albums: Palace Days and […]